The Ukrainian troops claimed killing over 50 militants in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, hours after losing a military transport plane with 49 people on board. The claims were not collaborated on the ground.

The massive casualty count among the ‘terrorists’, as Kiev calls
local militias claiming sovereignty over Ukraine’s Donetsk and
Lugansk Regions, also includes some 150 injured military
operation spokesperson Vladislav Seleznev claimed on his Facebook
page. Kiev’s forces also destroyed an ammunition depot, he added.

Seleznev also claimed that the majority of those killed and
injured are “non-Slavs,” without elaborating on how exactly this
fact could be established, considering that the city remains
under militia control.

Kramatorsk is a city located just south of Slavyansk, the
Ukrainian militia stronghold besieged by Kiev loyalists since
mid-April. The latest reports coming from the area didn’t mention
any spikes in the death toll of the ongoing military crackdown.

The reports come a day after a military transport aircraft
carrying 49 Ukrainian troops was downed At Lugansk Airport. It
was the largest-ever single loss Kiev acknowledged over the
months of violence in eastern Ukraine.

Seleznev’s claims of a major victory near Slavyansk were mirrored
by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who announced “a
counter-offensive” phase in the operation in a televised address.

“You should know that today the Ukrainian army for the first
time launched a counter-offensive. Our troops started to press
terrorists,” the president said. “I tasked the armed
forces of Ukraine to take control of Ukraine’s state border
through which terrorists get weapons, equipment, support and
money."

Poroshenko said Kiev gained control over 11 residential areas in
southeastern Ukraine which were previously under the control of
militias.

Kiev has been using increasingly indiscriminate and overwhelming
military force in a bid to bring the rebellious provinces under
its control, escalating from gun raids to mortar shelling to
heavy artillery fire and airstrikes. The violence claimed several
hundreds of lives of local civilians, militiamen and Ukrainian
troops, according to conservative estimates.

Cities affected most by the crackdown, such as Slavyansk, have
suffered serious damage in the onslaught and are facing shortage
of essentials like water and medicine. Thousands of people fled
the area, many of them going across the Russian border to find
refuge.